The class reviews the properties of operations. The use of “ask myself” questions to make sense of problems and persevere is modeled. Students review things to do when they feel stuck on a problem. Finally, students use the properties of operations to evaluate expressions.Key ConceptsStudents use the properties of operations to justify whether two expressions are equivalent.Goals and Learning ObjectivesTo start to work on a problem, make sense of the problem by using “ask myself” questions.Persevere in solving a problem even when feeling stuck.Use the properties of operations to evaluate expressions.

Four full-year digital course, built from the ground up and fully-aligned to the Common Core State Standards, for 7th grade Mathematics. Created using research-based approaches to teaching and learning, the Open Access Common Core Course for Mathematics is designed with student-centered learning in mind, including activities for students to develop valuable 21st century skills and academic mindset.

Algebraic Reasoning

Type of Unit: Concept

Prior Knowledge

Students should be able to:

Add, subtract, multiply, and divide rational numbers.
Evaluate expressions for a value of a variable.
Use the distributive property to generate equivalent expressions including combining like terms.
Understand solving an equation or inequality as a process of answering a question: which values from a specified set, if any, make the equation or inequality true?
Write and solve equations of the form x+p=q and px=q for cases in which p, q, and x are non-negative rational numbers.
Understand and graph solutions to inequalities x<c or x>c.
Use equations, tables, and graphs to represent the relationship between two variables.
Relate fractions, decimals, and percents.
Solve percent problems included those involving percent of increase or percent of decrease.

Lesson Flow

This unit covers all of the Common Core State Standards for Expressions and Equations in Grade 7. Students extend what they learned in Grade 6 about evaluating expressions and using properties to write equivalent expressions. They write, evaluate, and simplify expressions that now contain both positive and negative rational numbers. They write algebraic expressions for problem situations and discuss how different equivalent expressions can be used to represent different ways of solving the same problem. They make connections between various forms of rational numbers. Students apply what they learned in Grade 6 about solving equations such as x+2=6 or 3x=12 to solving equations such as 3x+6=12 and 3(x−2)=12. Students solve these equations using formal algebraic methods. The numbers in these equations can now be rational numbers. They use estimation and mental math to estimate solutions. They learn how solving linear inequalities differs from solving linear equations and then they solve and graph linear inequalities such as −3x+4<12. Students use inequalities to solve real-world problems, solving the problem first by arithmetic and then by writing and solving an inequality. They see that the solution of the algebraic inequality may differ from the solution to the problem.

Students explore the effects of wind on a plane's time and distance and represent these situations using algebraic expressions and equations. They use terms with positive, negative, and zero coefficients.Key ConceptsIn this lesson, students show what they remember from Grade 6 about writing expressions and solving one-step equations. They use what they learned earlier in Grade 7 about adding and subtracting integers. They extend these concepts to write and interpret an expression with a negative coefficient.Goals and Learning ObjectivesReview addition and subtraction of integers.Review the relationship between distance, time, and speed.Write an algebraic expression for distance in terms of time, t.Write a term with a negative coefficient.Review solving a one-step equation using the multiplication property of equality.

Students write expressions for geometric situations. They examine how different equivalent expressions can show different ways of thinking about the same problem.Key ConceptsStudents use their previous knowledge of how to find the perimeter and area of squares and rectangles. They write algebraic expressions for the perimeter and area of geometric figures. They examine how equivalent expressions, used to represent a problem situation, give clues to the approach the writer of the expression used to solve the problem. In the Challenge Problem, they use the distributive property to find the solution.ELL: For ELLs, access prior knowledge by writing the words area and perimeter on the board. Have students create concept maps associated with area and perimeter. Record students' responses on large poster paper that you can display in the room. The goal is to generate a list of words that students can use as a reference.Goals and Learning ObjectivesAccess prior knowledge of how to find the perimeter and area of squares and rectangles.Write algebraic expressions for finding perimeter or area of figures.Identify equivalent expressions.

Students work with a partner to revise their work on the Self Check. Students work with their partner to do activities that involve using expressions and equations to solve problems.Key ConceptsStudents will use what they have learned so far in this unit about writing expressions as well as writing and using equations to solve problems.Goals and Learning ObjectivesUse expressions and equations to solve problems.

Working With Rational Numbers

Type of Unit: Concept

Prior Knowledge

Students should be able to:

Compare and order positive and negative numbers and place them on a number line.
Understand the concepts of opposites absolute value.

Lesson Flow

The unit begins with students using a balloon model to informally explore adding and subtracting integers. With the model, adding or removing heat represents adding or subtracting positive integers, and adding or removing weight represents adding or subtracting negative integers.

Students then move from the balloon model to a number line model for adding and subtracting integers, eventually extending the addition and subtraction rules from integers to all rational numbers. Number lines and multiplication patterns are used to find products of rational numbers. The relationship between multiplication and division is used to understand how to divide rational numbers. Properties of addition are briefly reviewed, then used to prove rules for addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.

This unit includes problems with real-world contexts, formative assessment lessons, and Gallery problems.

This task assumes students are familiar with mixing problems. This approach brings out different issues than simply asking students to solve a mixing problem, which they can often set up using patterns rather than thinking about the meaning of each part of the equations.

The problem deals with a rational expression which is built up from operations arising naturally in a context: adding the volumes of the fertilizer and the water, and dividing the volume of the fertilizer by the resulting sum. Thus it encourages students to see the expression as having meaning in terms of numbers and operations, rather than as an abstract arrangement of symbols.

This blog hosts a user generated dictionary of slang terms from the various Arabic speaking countries. Users can submit terms and rate other users' entries. The site collects terms for 18 different dialects from the regions of the Persian Gulf, the Levant, and North Africa and allows users to search its collection by dialect or alphabetical order. There is considerable overlap within many of these dialects.

This task requires students to answer questions about the structure of an expression.

This webpage lists several, commonly used Arabic phrases to express greetings and emotions in ways considered polite and proper in many Arabic-speaking settings and contexts. The words include Arabic script, English translation, and English transliteration. Brief commentary is adduced when necessary in order to explain context.

The intention of this curriculum guide is to provide teachers with supplemental materials to use to support students in strengthening their skills in various concept areas that are crucial for understanding beginning algebra. The activities are broken down by skill with links provided below. This is intended as a way to provide students with engaging, primarily computer-based activities to get extra practice with material that is covered elsewhere in the curriculum. This collection focuses on simulations and games using the computer—some resources may be ripe for teachers to develop unique activities to accompany the simulation and some possible suggestions are included with the descriptions. This series is intended to be pick-and-choose.

In this Curriculum Guide:

Activities and practice with: Integers, Exponents, Order of Operations, Distributive Property, Expressions, Equations and Basic Graphing

This task compares the usefulness of different forms of a quadratic expression. Students have to choose which form most easily provides information about the maximum value, the zeros and the vertical intercept of a quadratic expression in the context of a real world situation. Rather than just manipulating one form into the other, students can make sense out of the structure of the expressions.

This question provides students with an opportunity to see expressions as constructed out of a sequence of operations: first taking the square root of n, then dividing the result of that operation into s. Students studying statistics encounter the expression in this question as the standard deviation of a sampling distribution with samples of size n when the distribution from which the sample is taken has standard deviation s.

The purpose of this task is to identify the structure in the two algebraic expressions by interpreting them in terms of a geometric context. Students will have likely seen this type of process before, so the principal source of challenge in this task is to encourage a multitude and variety of approaches, both in terms of the geometric argument and in terms of the algebraic manipulation.

Build coin expressions, then exchange them for variable expressions. Simplify and evaluate expressions until you are ready to test your understanding of equivalent expressions in the game!

This lesson unit is intended to help teachers assess how well students are able to: recognize the differences between equations and identities; substitute numbers into algebraic statements in order to test their validity in special cases; resist common errors when manipulating expressions such as 2(x Đ 3) = 2x Đ 3; (x + 3)_ = x_ + 3_; and carry out correct algebraic manipulations. It also aims to encourage discussion on some common misconceptions about algebra.

This page hosts five different lists of phrases grouped by categorry: introductory phrases, basic phrases and questions, and phrases related to the weather, hospitals, and internet cafes. Each phrase is written out alongside a transliteration and a translation.

Parts (d) and (e) of this task constitute a very advanced application of the skill of making use of structure: in (d) students are being asked to use the defining property of even and odd functions to manipulate expressions involving function notation. In (e) they are asked to see the structure in the system of two equations involving functions.